Temple Run 2

Last month, a grade six student named Madeline Messer wrote an article in the Washington Post asking why female characters in free-to-play games usually cost money to unlock versus their default male counterparts. Imangi Studios agreed making girls pay up for representation is a bit unfair, and made the runner Scarlett Fox a free character in Temple Run 2. Update the app to break down her paywall.

Temple Run 2 has done it again. Expanded into a whole new world with the Blazing Sands expansion. Available now in the game.

Touch Arcade notes:

It’s called “Blazing Sands,” and as you can see from the above trailer, you’ll be running through canyons along side raging rapids and Egyptian-y looking statues while marauding vines are smacking you in the face… Which really isn’t much of a surprise as vines in video games seem to be jerks almost 100% of the time. Of course there’s new stuff to unlock too between new outfits and Blazing Sands artifacts. If you collect ’em all, you’ll even get a swanky new hat.

Temple Run 2 has been the perfect example of an endless runner. It has everything a fan of the genre would want — variety in gameplay, characters, and now an even bigger monkey!

With over one billion downloads already, is there anyone who hasn’t played this yet? This expansion to Temple Run 2 brings the nearly three year old game is a welcome sight for fans and those new to the game as well. It refreshes this game and just maybe introduces it to a new group of players.

If you haven’t played it, give it a shot. If you have, now you have a reason to play it again.

Developer Imangi Studios has announced that Temple Run 2 reached 50 million downloads in the first 13 days after its release, making it what they call the “fastest growing mobile game” ever. Temple Run 2 is available on iOS, Google Play, and the Amazon Marketplace.

The previous record was set by Angry Birds Space, which hit the 50 million downloads milestone in 35 days. It’s important to note, however, that Angry Birds Space costs $0.99, while Temple Run 2 is free to download.

Temple Run 2 reached six million downloads in the first 24 hours of its release, and then 20 million downloads four days later. Obviously, things are looking good for the game, but it still has a long way to go before it overtakes the original Temple Run, which has been downloaded 170 million times. For more information on Temple Run 2, read our review, and then– if you’re one of the few who hasn’t– download the game yourself.

When a developer makes a game as wildly popular as Temple Run, they usually don’t want to change the formula too much in a sequel. With Temple Run 2, the folks at Imangi Studios have played it fairly safe, but they’ve managed to improve on just about every aspect of the original. Temple Run 2 uses the same basic gameplay, but it’s more beautiful, dynamic, and intense than the original. Best of all, this excellent game doesn’t cost a cent to download.

Just like Temple Run, the sequel starts with you, an intrepid explorer, stealing a golden artifact from a cave. This releases a giant beast that pursues you until it catches you, or you succumb to the deadly environment. All the same controls from the original are back, so you’ll swipe up to jump over pits, down to slide under rocks, and left or right to turn when the path forks.

The graphics are drop-dead gorgeous this time around, with lush, colorful landscapes everywhere you turn. The environments are much more dynamic as well, with straightaways and right angles of the original game supplanted by hills, valleys, creeks, waterfalls, and gentle curves here. The developers have even added zip lines and mine carts to keep the game interesting– and it works wonders. The only issue is the occasional graphical pop-in, but this usually isn’t too distracting.

Once again, you collect coins as you run. You can spend your fortunes on new characters and upgrades between tries. Since this is a freemium game, you can also buy gems that let you keep running after you bite the dust. This makes the leaderboards meaningless, but that’s a small price to pay for getting such an excellent game for free.

We could go on and on about why Temple Run 2 is a blast to play, but you’d be better off downloading it to see for yourself. The game delivers a fantastic blend of addictive action and high-octane intensity that feels both familiar and new. Whether you played the original or not, this sequel definitely deserves a spot on your iOS device.

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The fine folks at Milkbag games have released Sidewords. A fun little diversion of a word game that is the devil child of crosswords and scrabble. For each level in the game the grid must be completed to win the level — this means that each letter at the top and side must be used. And not just the top or side, but each word must be made up of letters from the top and side to create a grid. It’s a pain, but in the right kind of way. Even the simplest of the levels can be a head scratcher until you get used to the game. Well worth the $3 as a diversion while we wait for Milkbag to finally release Snow Siege.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math.

It’s not always easy to tear your kids away from their tablets and make them do something edifying. Thankfully, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math relieves you of this task by turning mathematics into a fun touchscreen video game. Win win!

Aimed at children 3-6 years old, the app makes math fun by ‘gamifying’ it, turning simple mathematics problems into little challenges so that your pre-schooler can learn and play at the same time.

There are more than two dozen mini-games, split across three categories: Numbers, Shapes and Measurements, and Add and Subtract. According to the developer the difficulty of these puzzles is adaptive too, so kids of any ability can be both encouraged and challenged.

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Pewter Games has brought their charming point and click adventure The Little Acre to iOS. It’s an amazingly beautiful animated adventure set in a sort of hybrid magical / alien world. A great all ages adventure and very fun.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, The House of Da Vinci by Blue Brain Games. There’s a reason Leonardo Da Vinci is the only renaissance figure who routinely shows up in video games you know. With his remarkable inventiveness and genius for creative problem-solving, Da Vinci was a gamer through and through. He was just born 500 hundred years too soon. Thankfully, there are studios like Blue Brain Games to bring him to life in videogame form. The House of Da Vinci, which comes to us courtesy of a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, is a puzzler that seeks to channel the artistry and innovation of its title character.

You play as one of Da Vinci’s more promising apprentices, and you have the challenging task of trying to work out where the hell he’s gone. Was he assassinated by the church? Who knows. Has he quietly gone into a retirement? Perhaps. Did he accidentally invent a shrink ray and shrink himself down to the size of an dustmite? Probably not. Da Vinci’s workshop looks beautiful, thanks to some impressive 3D graphics, and the in-game environment is crammed with all the elaborate machines and crazy inventions you’d expect to find in the workplace of a renaissance genius.(more…)

Poly Bridge is out now on iOS, and it’s good to have it! It’s a great game and many seem to agree that it’s the best bridge builder game available. But the iOS versions, so far, is missing the sandbox mode. I would hope that it’s coming soon in an update. If you are all interested in physics puzzlers, grab this one. (Note: the video is for the PC version, I have yet to see a trailer for the mobile version, the developer Dry Cactus isn’t that great at marketing…)

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